So another year of gaming ends. Together, we look forward to more
gaming excitement, adventure, and fun with friends in ’09. And also, some of us
look forward to Wii games. Ha ha! Just kidding. We don’t look forward to Wii
games.

But before we venture completely into
the new year (roughly meaning “before we catch ourselves writing ’08 instead of
’09”), let’s take a look back at the games I think were the very best this year
in categories that I really care about. Yes, friends, let’s look at what I call
quite frank-ly the best games of ’08.

Best Music

Bionic Commando: Rearmed - Videogame music
hasn’t sounded this professional since the J-Pop days of Kingdom Hearts.
The difference: You can and will download and listen to the soundtrack for
Bionic Commando: Rearmed, without looking like a total idiot. Also, if
someone catches you doing so, they won’t snicker. More likely, they’ll start
bobbing their heads and/or dancing. Possibly, a music video will happen, a la Pringles
commercials.

Best Art Style and Design

1st:Little Big Planet - This game is
Art Style and Design! In fact, it achieves so much with Art Style and Design
that you won’t be able to stop playing simply because it looks that amazing.

2nd: Dead Space
- I
didn’t dig Dead Space because I felt like I was playing an over-complicated,
wannabe Resident Evil 4. However, I have to acknowledge that the artistry
invested in the game is phenomenal. Not only are the Necromorphs well done, but
Isaac’s character design and the general look of the USG Ishimura totally
immerse you in EA’s 26th century space hell.

Best Gameplay

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots - First thing’s first—I didn’t love Metal Gear Solid 4.
Really. I didn’t. I thought the ending was terrible and a lot of the writing was
stupid crap. Also, aside from the hour long cut scenes (which everyone should be
expecting now, by the way), Guns of the Patriots took the usual, Metal Gear lack of realism to the next level (“So… Raiden break danced those Gekko
into each other?... Sigh.”). However, I still totally beat the game. And do you
know why? Because despite all of the painful crap I had to deal with (like
Otacon crying his eyes out… again), I thought the gameplay for MGS4 was
incredible. Combined stealth, firearm, and melee combat coupled with tons of
gadgets (including a freaking iPod), makes for some of the loosest, malleable,
and addicting gameplay we’ve had in some time. But on top of it, like all
Metal Gear Solid games, this one has added touches to gameplay that reach a
depth you’d never expect; I didn’t even know you could roll around until half
way through the game, let alone shoot from the floor after being knocked down.

FPS (First Person Shooter) of the Year

Left 4 Dead - As a genre, I’ve
always felt that FPS’s are better played with friends. I’ve also always felt
that they carry stories pretty poorly, so the less story, the better the
experience. To be frank about it, no other FPS has ever achieved this end as
well as Left 4 Dead has. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll shoot some zombies. And you’ll do all of it with the very people you’d want to survive a
zombie apocalypse with—your BFF’s.

Best Fighting Game

Super Smash Bros. Brawl - What even is there
out there to combat this? Seriously? I know there are other fighting games that
came out, but nothing made the reality bending impact that Brawl did. No one
stood up all night on the very evening of release just to unlock more and more
pointless costume elements in Soul Calibur IV before their friends did
(particularly because that one dude who was that into Soul Calibur IV
didn't have friends). And there were no arguments at home / in public / by the
water cooler / during sex about why Jacky was better in Virtua Fighter 2
and that's why he can't beat the newer, more broken characters. However, all of
this and more happened with Super Smash Bros. Brawl. So much sex was
interrupted by heated "Marth is better than Ike" arguments that it's not even
funny.

2D Platformer of the Year

1st Place: Little Big Planet - As I don't own or
particularly care about the PS3, this really came out of left field... The
problem is, when it did arise (last month for me), it was pretty impossible to
ignore. Little Big Planet has so much style and charm infused into every
last inch of it's graphically broken being that it will easily be one of the
most incredible things you'll see and experience in this generation of gaming.
Combine extremely realistic textures and physics with an incredibly playful art
style and you have the exact recipe for feeling like a kid again; the game is
simply wondrous.

2nd Place: Megaman 9- The unbridled nostalgia packing power of this nearly
unbeatable game was enough to put it at the top of my list until a month ago.
Complete with achievements, Megaman 9 easily ate a good month or so of my
life when it was released this year. And now, my only regret is that there's not
more of it to continue eating my life. Who knew we'd all missed the original
Megaman that badly (although, of course, we all knew we were sick of Battle Network)? And who knew Capcom
would perfectly understand just how to execute
this game (down to the terrible box art) after such a long Mega-hiatus?

3rd Place:Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia - Did I enjoy this
year's Castlevania? Of course I did. I always enjoy Castlevania.
On top of just being Castlevania though, Order of Ecclesia was totally
innovative as far as whips-to-the-face go. Gameplay was pretty much completely
revamped this time around and although there were some things I missed from
previous forms, there was a bunch I really enjoyed.

4th Place:Bionic Commando: Rearmed - Once again, Capcom
went old school. And once again, it was totally awesome. Not to be mistaken with
the completely lame looking, 3D Bionic Commando sequel, Rearmed
had all the gameplay you'd missed and all the style you could handle, not to
mention the freshest beats this side of 2D Megaman.

Game of the Year

Fallout 3-"Your Grandmother invites you to
tea, but you're surprised when she gives you a pistol and orders you to kill
another vault resident. What do you do?

1 Obey your elder and
kill the vault resident with the pistol.

2 Offer your most prized
possession in exchange for the vault resident's life.

3 Ask for a minigun
instead. After all, you don't want to miss.

4 Throw your tea in
granny's face."

Yes, yes. An actual quote from the game. Aaaand...
point made.

One more
thing before I quit:Don’t agree
with something I said? Of course not. You wouldn’t. Let’s take this to the G-POP
forums then. Or, also, if you’d like to hear any more ranting about any of the
games listed here, feel free to ask any questions. That’d also be on the G-POP
forums.

And just to answer this question now, yes, if not
for Fallout 3, Brawl probably would’ve been my game of the year.